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First, The Aussies and Proteas messed up my weekend by finishing their match on friday taking a weekend break then The great BCCI or ICC whoever is responsible for helping Test matches thrive, quite brilliantly planned to start a match on “MONDAY”.Guess what! The folks @ media were catching upto the occasion saying there is no crowd in the stadium to watch the match. What Do You expect? An Indian would take rest in the weekends and get freshen up for a Test match in Monday and would love to come all the Five days with India Facing a side which was fancying itself because it gave a tough fight against Bangladesh. Then One More thing! It’s because of the Ranji season or What ? Why no matches are being played beyond 4 days(The Aus vs Sa was 3 days!) . Since there were too many youngster’s they got confused with the ranji and was pepped up to finish it in 4 days!~! . Ok, here i go angrily in brief of how brief the match was.

Day 1 – India Bat’s First , Dravid Gives it a burst and VVS was their at Eden to do his best.

The 2000th test has already commenced in the mecca of cricket,the two top teams have already locked their horn’s in this going to be long series and the men in brightly striped ties are in their seats with their hands clapping for almost every small achievement . This is Lord’s for you , it is far more like watching sachin , it’s all history if he plays,gets out, scores 10,20,30,40,50,….100,….200,…300….400?. whatever happens in lord’s is history and the cricket history writers could also buy up a house near it as they can do their work easily and quiet closely to their home.The Indians with their strong side back is looking to strong for any team’s liking English are also looking like a team which cannot be taken lightly .

The toss of the 2000th was on air and Dhoni had the right to call it and he called it right too , India won the toss and decided to bowl first in a day of overcast conditions and darkness . India’s bowling was spearheaded by the wily Zaheer after a brief rest from the Caribbean tour and immediately with not more than 10 overs was being bowled and England @ just 19 ,India had the first laugh with Zaheer removing Cook with the ball that didn’t swing disappointingly for cook going for just 12 . The bowling supported by heavy swing and famous Lord’s slop helping Ishant & praveen with the extra bit of pace they need and Trott & strauss were having a torrid time in the middle but they saw it through and strauss when he was seemingly moving towards momentum was caught in the deep by ishant again from Zaheer for 22 with the scoreboard @ 62 . Now, KP joined trott in the middle and KP had one hell of a time in the middle with ball swinging both ways but the poor slip catching gave Kp some air to breath and Trott on the other end had no worries and he was playing as fluidly as he can as though the ball is doing nothing. Trott was a treat to watch and if only praveen and ishant made more use of their advantages after zaheer left halfway suffering a niggle(a big scare actually for India) Trott could have been troubled atleast KP could have been troubled.now the England stay @ 127/2 as the nature turned it lights off too take a nap and poured a little shower to allow the players to do the same. that was stumps for the day as England seemed to be in control of the conditions with Trott scoring the first 50 of the series.

Hope day 2 is much brighter and much dry and much to the Indian hopes Zak should be back.

The greener of the greens , the heat-less summer , the cleanest of clothes, and mildest of crowd celebrations and nonetheless gallons of beer and no no it isn’t the Wimbledon(No beer in Wimbledon!) , It is the Test series between India and England. It is one such series which still withholds the tradition of 5 tests and this is being regarded the first intense tour for the New crowned One day champions after their triumph. India still clutching to it’s No.1 spot in tests like an adamant baby and the English who are much more determined to put an end to India’s non-losing streak of 10 consecutive test series . It actually is much more respite to Indian cricket fans as this is the kind of tour they are waiting to feast on after the much boring (one has to accept!) Windies tour(I was too bored to blog it out) and after all the Indians get to have the matches telecast at a time when they won’t sleep or won’t get fired turning up for work late after a very late night slow cricket. This series actually does not have any kind of fire down it’s belly to ignite the series or any kind of enmity between the teams that would brighten up the series ,but still this series of 5 going to be grueling tests would attract more eye-balls than a exhibition match of Manchester united.

The results of the matches are to be too keenly watched by experts, fans, test enthusiasts and especially the men behind the camera’s. There isn’t too much of controversies surrounding the series as much as the gayle fiasco did for Windies tour but the good news is the Indians are back with their best team and except for Sehwag there is no big worries to the already strong batting ordered with it’s heavily armored middle order comprising of The maestro, The Wall & The ever Stylist VVS. A.Mukund who had an decent run in difficult of pitches in Caribbean would get another shot to open with Gambhir in Sehwag’s absence , Raina’s dominant comeback in the windies tour and also in the recently concluded practice match adds more strength to the armory. The bowling which is always touted as India’s Weak link especially their fast bowling department has proved much more in the carribean tour and Ishanth with his dangerous pace and short one’s along with his current form looks as dangerous as a Indian Fast bowler ever have been . Bhajji is at his usual best and munaf with his sharpened art of spining as A. Roberts would say forms a deadly quartet and OOOoooops! forgot to remind that zak is back Yes, zaheer the bowling attack this time would ne lead by the wily and cunning Zaheer khan . Strauss would have already started his prayers.

Meanwhile, The English Batting is also as strong as it can be with all their Top four Batsmen in top form. Cook & Strauss form a deadly opening pair with each of scoring centuries at will these days with Ian bell , Trott followed by Kevin peiterson (K.P)and Eoin Morgan combine to form a devastating middle order , all these batsmen have numbers to support their claim. K.P is supposed to look for runs as he is the only small weak link in the English batting armory but that is what is dangerous for India as he can come to form at any time that too in a series of 5 tests. The bowling of England was not their weak link ever and it is not this time again , Anderson considered as one of the prime swing bowlers of present times in the lines of steyn and zaheer will lead the attack for England and swann the wily fox will be ready to spin his web of disaster for India but Everybody knows the history of Spin against India , Broad the new T20 captain has too much to prove after the shabby show the previous series , tremlett or bresnan will always be there for providing the extra hand in crisis situations.

Overall, This is a mouth watering series in waiting and too many one -to- one are on their way to heat it up along the way. This series , i will not say will be going down in history as a great one, but it will prove the might of test cricket and why it is rated above all forms of Cricket.

Again OOOOooopps… Sachin’s 100th International is waiting to come this series and supposedly to everybody’s liking the next match itself.

Chennai Super Kings in Chennai and whoever may be the opponent leave them bewildered and leaves them gasping for breath as they sweep past them to mark their victory. This is the scenario from the very first game when CSK sneaked past KKR. CSK who are now sitting atop the points table comfortably and are very much promised for one of the top 2 spots unless anything different happening on the final day of the league matches.

MSD and Parthiv(A former CSK) walked for the Toss which eventually was won by MSD and who without any hesitation chose to bat on a pitch which looked slow and two paced. Huss and Vijay walked onto the crease and as usual started slowly and when RP returned bowl the 3rd over vijay was in his usual mood slapping three straight fours until RP delivered a perfect yorker on the off stump which made vijay clueless and later stumpless . Then Raina came and gave his former teammate behind the stumps a welcome gift and parthiv rejected it much to the wrath of Sreesanth ,Then raina released his wrath in Sree’s next over scoring 16 runs in 3 balls before holing out the next delivery to mid on. Then the ever resilient Badri came and gave hodge some charge before holing out to RP in deep (yesterday’s offer for KTK : give boundaries get a wicket free). Then much to the surprise when everybody was expecting the wicket keeper batsmen to arrive at the crease he arrive but his name was different he was called as W.Saha who was taking care of the deep boundries as fielder in quite a few matches now and for the very first time this IPL came to face a delivery. Huss could not get a move on and Saha was very new to the crease and CSK’s score looked stand still for some overs before saha upped the ante by sweeping jaddu for a six and huss who was struggling gave up his wicket and stepped in Dhoni and he along with saha started increasing the run flow but dhoni nicked one to his counterpart and walked off then Albie came to infuse fire power but much to his like ball did not bounce much and saha carried on hitting at least a boundary of every over and an much needed six . they scored 21 runs of the last 2 overs with saha missing out on a well deserved 50 with CSK finishing at 152/5 setting up a reasonable total to fight it out.

KTK’s chase is on missing mahela this time around Parthiv opened with Mccullum and Ashwin opening the bowling this time. ashwin started up miserly and bollinger continued the same way and the stand in skipper parthiv gave his wicket the softest of ways and Mccullum tried everything dancing down the track, sweeping, steeping back, walking down the pitch but he could not get a move on particularly against ashwin who bowled 3 overs in his first spell. G.rao(V.rao’s) brother started to get a move on against jakathi before falling to bravo’s famous slower one.Mccullum and hodge rotated the strike and scoring the necessary boundary often and KTK for the very first time started to inflict pressure on CSK before jakathi made a copmeback cleaning up Mccullum. Then hodge realised it is already too late to get a move on and skied one towards Vijay who while holding on to the regulation catch was too complacent and dropped the catch making him look like an amateur on the field. Hodge later gave a final burst in the penultimate over from bravo’s and Vijay would have had a stinky stomach . Later Bollinger came onto finish the match with his trade mark last over and CSK yet again won @ home. KTK finished at 141/5 falling 11 runs short. The little known Saha was adjudged the MoM.

The story of CSK seems very simple in this tournament , They do not win by huge margins but they still win it by a considerable margin, they are to lose then, there should be rain or valthaty kind of innings on the ranks. They can now boast about having the best NRR in the tournament and they are the only team to qualify for the play off’s 4th time straight and they are the most consistent team of the tournament at home. To their credit yesterday’s MoM to saha was their seventh player this season to win the award in 9 matches with Huss winning it thrice (!Badri hasn’t won it yet!). They now have nearly 7 accomplished match winners.

After the stop of the torrential rain it was the turn of the hurricane in centurion and not 1 hurricane but 2, Yes, M.Morkel & Steyn. Wow! what a piece of seam bowling it was .Quite a sight for fast bowlers it was,the bowling contained nothing special except pace and use of bounce in the pitch . Even though it was embarrassing to see the Indian batsmen get out ,they could do nothing about it ,the deliveries they got out to were absolutely unplayable and the deliveries that got rid of gambhir and dravid by Morkel were scorchers and both batsmen could do very less about it. The Class of the Indian batsmen were visible in parts but what can they do against an exceptional bowling performance from botht he ends. tsotsobe is being made to look like the only weak link because he is the only bowler lacking pace in the S.A attack. I do not have any idea about mentioning about any batsmen here but still i want to give the deserved credit to The Little Master for the way he played . he was pulling, driving and playing good shots when ever he can until the delivery he got from Steyn which made him walk back to the Pavilion.

As i expressed in my previous post this match would definitely produce a result and it would be purely based on second innings performance were the spinners would come into the frame. I Think Sree , Ishanth & udankat would be licking their fingers to have a go in this seaming wicket. Udankat is actually very lucky to make his debut in such conditions. Now @ 10:12 P.M IST ,India are 136/9 .oh! as i was typing this post the lights in the ground are ON and the play is most presumably over and that is the end of the 1st day .

We were expecting a day were runs or wickets would flow but except that Rain alone flowed in the super sports park , centurion. The wait is finally over and the match has started with as usual Dhoni losing yet another toss and this time smith who won the toss has elected to field siting reasons of sloppy conditions and yes smith took the correct decision as any other captain would have done. The pitch was totally covered because of the down pour for the past two days and the heat under the covers would have generated an ample amount of moisture and definitely would help the seamer’s for a long period that too for steyn and morkel . India has definitely lost such a crucial toss but the match eventhough curtailed by rain and further disturbances are also expected ,this match might produce a result and i suspect it is going to be a low scoring affair and going to be a second innings shoot out .

Here it is ! The most anticipated test series of the season along woth The Ashes. The clash of the No.1 and the No.2 sides in the world . India touring South Africa and the first test of the series starts from tomorrow.So, lets go check out what’s in store .

The Series starts in the super sports park in Centurion. The opening match is expected to be a cracker , but lets pray i don’t get washed off.
The encounter is so awesome because of the match up of some players @ similar positions .

(Openers – shewag , gambhir Vs Smith ,Peterson) .No prizes for guesses the Indians are top of the charts in this slot with anybody
(No.3 – Amla Vs Dravid) . This is one tough thing to take a shot at,Dravid has been in fine form but Amla is in a purple patch of his lifetime.
(No.4 – Sachin Vs Kallis) . The greatest match up i could imagine , both legends in their own respect,Kallis is sure gonna be the thorn in India’s flesh this series and Sachin as usual will trouble the likes of S.A bowlers. Remember, Sachin has played in S.A more than many of the S.A player’s in the present team.
(No.5 – V.V.S Vs AB) – The prominent and stylish laxman who is in the finest touch after the Aussie series and the next big thing of S.A cricket AB . It’ real tough to match these guyz
(No.6 – Raina Vs Prince) – Raina is the rising star but yet to hit top gear in the 5-day affair and Prince is slightly ahead courtesy of his experience.Both are definitely the only serious weak links in both the sides.
(Keeper – Boucher Vs Dhoni) – the captain marvel is not that great behind the stumps and not trust worthy in batting in the highest level and boucher who can mix with the tail like milk and water and good behind the stumps too. here Boucher edges out but does this position really matters???
(Spinners – Bajji Vs Harris) – Last time around Harris showed soe spark but spinners against India ,it’s just a joke(Warne and Murali would approve that!). Bhajji would exploit the bounce and extract spin along with it and can be a concern for S.A if he hits fine form. but Spinners in S.A are just used to maintain the over rate
(Seamer’s – Zaheer,Ishanth,Sreesanth Vs Steyn,M.Morkel,Mclaren) – here the ingredient were India will miss out is Pace. S.A surely has some serious pace in their armory which India lacks. But take it from me Indian bowlers may not be the best seam bowler’s in the world but in seaming and bowler friendly conditions they are as dangerous as the world expect them too. do not be surprised if they come up with something special…

There you go . the build up is too good to get involved in the series. Keep reading more about the series here on Blindly sports.